Mr. and Mrs. J

Big "5" Problems

It was five o'clock in the evening, only an hour away from opening, only an hour away from Mr J taking over Miss Millie's barn bar for himself and the place was empty. To be brutally honest it should've been condemned.

In the quiet little barn shack, with nobody but us inside, we all stood in the barroom looking clueless. Where all the empty stools and tables were only hours away from being filled with drunken patrons, wild loose women and loud music, it was easy to see all the foundation problems that were to arise.

Mr J stormed into the barroom where we were.

"Bellene, you didn't tell me that this place was such a shithole!" Mr J said, as he pulled her by the arm to the middle of the barroom floor. She wiggled free from his grasp and smiled.

"Oh come on now. It's not that bad. You can make due with this." She said, sounding carefree.

Big P sucked his teeth.

"Girl, look at this place. You done fucked him over big time." He said, shaking his head at her.

She cocked her head to the side and put her hand on her hip.

"Oh stop it, big boy. Don't you know that things have to get ugly before they ever get better?"

And at this point things had gotten real ugly.

A whole week had gone by and that whole week was hectic as hell! From the moment Miss Millie said go, there was no time wasted. As soon as Miss Millie gave Mr J the ok to start conducting business in the bar, he jumped right on it.

The first thing Mr J did was check the building. He scoped the place out thoroughly. He checked the basement, which was found to have a bad leak from an unknown source, that was also causing the strong mildew odor. We looked and saw that there were no bathrooms that folks could use. There was only an outhouse in the back yard that had severe damage from ratholes and raccoon scratches, and on top of it a broken toilet! All I could say was thank goodness Miss Millie's barn bar was in the woods because I don't know where people were going to the bathroom, but all types of unsanitary thoughts popped up in my mind. The floors in the club were buckling in some spots, which was amazing that no one had fallen through yet. There was a gigantic gaping hole in the wall of the bar, that according to Miss Millie, was from a fight that occurred years ago. The kitchen area was completely unusable, with oven gas leaks, pipes busted under the sink, and this was the spot where the roof had caved in at. That's why Miss Millie had the kitchen padlocked because the expense of fixing it would be way too much. She said the only way to feed the patrons was to make cold cut sandwiches that she kept in the refrigerator. Most of the time the customers were too drunk to notice that they were only eating cheap sandwiches and had no variety.

At this point, the only thing that Mr J saw that he loved and could actually use was the balcony in the back of the barn bar. It was surprisingly sturdy, clean and facing a great view of the horizon of the city skyline and river. It looked like it had been newly installed. He really liked this balcony because, with its two rocking chairs and small table, he thought that it was romantic spot and a great place for tipsy lovers to canoodle. Other than that, this place was going to bleed money out of Mr J's pocket. But he seemed ready to bleed. Besides he had already given Miss Millie a $500 down payment that she was not going to give back, so he was determined to make it work. But all of his determination was coming at a price, and I'm not just talking about money.

The beginning of that week showed that Mr J had a lot on his hands. Though this barn bar gave him the space and potential he needed to make his dream come true, the stress of trying to fix it up was getting to him.

Whenever we'd go back to the motel, after a day of shopping or trying to fix and prepare things for the club, Mr J would close himself off in the bedroom all night to, I guess, think and make plans of ways to fix the issues. He didn't want to be disturbed by anyone, not even Mrs J! I could tell she was really craving his attention but he didn't want to be bothered, with any of us.